Our vision
To be the first name that comes to mind in English language teacher training.
David Ford
World Wide English has its roots in the Cultura Inglesa through the management of the business. With a 75-year history, over 75,000 students and 35 schools, the Cultura Inglesa is one of the leading English language teaching companies in Brazil and one of the largest English language teaching organisations in the world. As president of the company for 22 years, David became interested in expanding his model overseas and chose China as his first place of interest.
Born in Brazil but educated in Britain, David obtained his honours degree in engineering from Manchester University and holds dual nationality: British and Brazilian. Supporting him in World Wide English are Ms. Ella Lovece and Mr. Robert Paterson.
Robert Paterson
Robert has a wide background in finance. He worked for many years with the Lloyds Bank Group of the UK where he held positions as International Director in Brazil and Country Manager in Dubai, with responsibility for Oman and Iran. More recently, he was the Managing Director of a Czech Bank, based in Prague, and was responsible for setting up an emerging market fund for Cuba whilst working for the investment bank Daniel Stewart of London. He is a Fellow of the Securities Institute in London and a life member of the British Chartered Institute of Bankers. He is responsible for the finance and administration of the company and investor relations.
Ella Lovece
Ella has lived and worked in China since 2003. She has more than 20 years’ experience in language teaching at the most senior level and has joined the company as its Academic Director. After 15 years in the industry in Australia, she moved to Asia where she worked in language teaching in Singapore and Malaysia before moving to Shanghai, China. She has a Master’s degree in English Language Teaching Management from Surrey University in the UK and plays a key role in the development of the business alongside David and Robert. She is responsible for all academic matters including programme development and delivery and the selection and training of all teaching staff.
World Wide English Trainers
All of our courses are delivered by a highly-skilled team of native English-speaking teacher trainers from the UK, Canada, Australia and the USA.
World Wide English trainers are fully qualified professionals – DELTA to Masters level - each with many years experience in ELT classrooms teaching all levels and types of students. As trainers they have experience teaching courses and workshops for both pre- and in-service teachers, observation of practice teaching and giving comprehensive feedback. In addition, they have experience in syllabus design and materials and test development and conduct continuous action research for their own professional development including attending and presenting at conferences.
At World Wide English we appreciate that the theory that underpins our approaches and methodologies is important and it certainly has a place in our courses however for World Wide English trainers teaching (about) communication through actual communication and not merely theorising about it is just as important.
Our focus is to maximise teaching and skills development and our aim is to help English teachers become the very best in their field.
